The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to an electrical connector to which insulated conductors of a multiconductor cable are connected by insulation piercing.
In recent years there is an increasing demand for compact and versatile electronic components. As a result, a multiconductor cable with thin insulated conductors has been proposed. However, this made it more difficult to terminate insulated conductors of such a cable to an electrical connector, and many attempts to solve it have been proposed. For example, a modular connector such as disclosed in Japanese U.M. Patent Application Kokai No. 60-136480 which is assigned to the same assignee as this application, has been proposed and now widely used. This modular connector is provided with a conductor pitch correction adapter which is useful for arranging thin insulated conductors of a multiconductor cable to facilitate their connections to contacts.
However, the above modular connector has the following shortcomings.
(1) Since insulated conductors are terminated to contacts after the insulated conductors projecting from the correction adapter are inserted into the conductor receiving slot, the insulated conductors are buckled or difficult to insert into the receiving slot in the case of thin insulated conductors or a cable having a great number of insulated conductors.
(2) The insulated conductors are not fixed until the cable and the insulated conductors are secured to the insulated housing by deformation of fixing portions after they are arranged in the adapter and inserted into the receiving slot.
(3) By the process in which steps of arranging insulated conductors, inserting the insulated conductors, and piercing the insulation are carried out separately, the insulated conductors projecting from the adapter are buckled during transportation so that it is necessary to not only arrange the projecting insulated conductors in the conductor insertion step but also check if the piercing sections are inserted into the housing before push.